Glasgow tops incapacity benefits league table

Newly released welfare figures show Glasgow has the highest number of incapacity benefit claimants in the UK.

More than 55,000 people in Glasgow are on incapacity benefit, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.

The government is launching its Welfare Reform Green Paper today, designed to help one million of the UK’s 2.7 million incapacity benefit claimants into work over the coming decade.

Glasgow East and North East topped the list of 100 UK constituencies with the highest number of people receiving handouts.

Three other Glasgow wards were in the top 20. All but one of the city’s seven voting areas – Glasgow North – made the list.

Glasgow MSP Bill Aitken said: “These figures are truly depressing and really quite appalling. I’m sorry but I can’t be convinced that all of these people are unable to work. We really have to see how we can get people free of the dependency culture.”